What are the cornerstones of a thriving coding department? How can you ensure your coding team is built on a foundation of education, compliance, and satisfaction? We spoke with several coding managers to collect solutions and guidance for common coding challenges.

HIM professionals know that as we move from paper to an electronic environment, our mission of privacy and security remains the same. As the medium changes, however, we must evaluate new threats to information.

The growth of the Internet has been proportionate to the growth of its at....

In today's workplace, efficiency of operation has become more important than physical location. Employers have been motivated by the tight labor market and advances in technology to offer flexible work arrangements, in particular teleworking, to recruit and retain talented emplo....

Phoenix, AZ, is a city of sunshine, golf courses, and resorts. It is one of our nation's fastest growing regions with mild winters, lots of land, and a low cost of living. Yet, despite its geographic advantages, Phoenix-area hospitals are not immune to coder vacancies and physical space limit....

Suppose someone walked into your office and said that she knew a sure-fire way to decrease your coding staff turnover and increase its productivity. Would you invite her to sit down and tell you more? If you are like most HIM managers who face the daily challenge of getting work done on ti....

As technology changes, our definition of the workplace expands, and we no longer are limited to working at our desk in an office. The authors describe technologies that enable us to work from home or on the road and examine security regulations and precautions. As health inf....

Working from home has become a common practice as organizations try to maximize the number of productive work hours in a day. A plethora of new portable devices and Web-based technology enables this option by providing off-site access to work-based applications and facilitating the transp....

With HIPAA requirements now in effect, HIM professionals should look for a remote coding solution that offers privacy and security measures to help cope with coding backlogs while meeting all HIPAA compliance regulations. The system should incorporate the advantag....

For staff at one hospital, coding at home had long been an unattainable goal. A new approach to the project, coupled with the support of an ASP, helped make it a reality and success. (FORE Best Practice, AHIMA Foundation)

Home coding is one of the biggest trends in health information management today as more hospitals are sending coders home to help alleviate the shortage. Simultaneously, thousands of clinical coders are demanding a work-from-home option as a way to improve their lifestyle and gain flexibility....

In the new world of remote work forces, old management principles still apply. The trick is to apply them in entirely new ways. Many health information management professionals don’t work anywhere near their “place” of employment. They are remote workers, performin....

As clinical documentation improvement (CDI) programs become more popular, providers are still struggling with implementing CDI programs for several different reasons, including: geographical location; a shortage of outpatient coders and CDI specialists; or even the lack of physi....

An increasing number of healthcare workforce members are telecommuting. As transcriptionists, coders, customer service representatives, and others are working from home, many providers are weighing the benefits against potential privacy and security risks.

Similar to the national nursing shortage being experienced by healthcare providers, health information management (HIM) departments across the country are experiencing a severe shortage of qualified clinical coders. When coding vacancies occur, the coding process....

For managers of staff who work off-site, good communication is the key to establishing more than a remote connection. Gone are casual practices such as "management by walking around." HIM departments understand firsthand the need to tap into talent across geographic boundaries,....

Only in recent years has the widespread acceptance and use of computer systems and Internet-derived technologies allowed HIM departments of all types and sizes to be physically untethered from their organizations and exist virtually. From a technical perspective, an HIM department function....

Over my 30-plus years in the medical transcription industry, I have seen plenty of changes. I can remember sitting in the basement of a hospital with my typewriter trying to decipher the words recorded on a blue plastic belt with grooves similar to a phonograph record. Slowly, technology found....

Among the benefits offered by a prospective employer, the opportunity to work at home ranks high to job candidates. However, the employer's commitment to a home-based or telecommuting employee should continue beyond recruiting and hiring by helping to ensure a safe and secure work envi....

More and more HIM department managers are turning to remote coding. However, before implementing this staffing model, managers must answer several questions regarding the privacy and security of patient information, including: What are the compliance risks? How will privacy and secu....

Recently, a group of coders participated in a survey about their day-to-day experiences as remote, or at-home coders. The survey asked a series of questions related to the positives and negatives of coding at home versus coding in the more traditional office setting. Below is a summary of the....

Home coding has been identified as one of the leading trends for health information management (HIM) in 2001. Similar to home-based transcription, coding from home has opened doors and reinvented coding careers for hundreds of clinical coders throughout the Unite....